


The Grand Finale

by queenoffruits



Category: The Big O
Genre: Mindfuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 19:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenoffruits/pseuds/queenoffruits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exploration of an explanation to the series and of the reset.  I tried to go with the mindfuck feel of the end of the second season.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Grand Finale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cleo2584 (AnnaK)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=cleo2584+%28AnnaK%29).



Reaching forward with both hands, Roger Smith took the control stick, thumb poised   
over the red button. "Big O! Final Stage!" Chained spikes rocket into the city   
streets, grounding the Megadeus as its armor began unfolding, baring its ultimate   
weapon. The cannon whirs and glows in an awesome hint of its raw power, Big   
Fau's laser fire radiantly reflecting off of the Big O just before it fires and   
vaporizes everything in it's path, Rosewater's scream drowned out by the hiss of   
smoldering asphalt and the crash of the collapsing dome.

The silence sets in as the ringing in Roger's ears fades, and the dust clouds   
begin to settle, the shadow silhouetting the form of the White Megadeus. Alex   
Rosewater laughs and speaks with bravado unbecoming of man who just lost half his   
Big. "You're weak, Roger Smith. When it's all said and done, you're just a   
negotiator!" Rosewater levies the Big Fau's laser at the Big O. Roger Smith grits   
his teeth. "Die!"

But before he can fire, light casts the colossal shadow of a third Megadeus. Bare   
teeth worked into a skeletal steel gleam with unnatural light. Points of light on   
it's back flare up. With grounding composure, Dorothy dictates. "Big Venus, the   
bird whose wings have been plucked."

With each step, the city behind Big Venus fades into a stark, white grid, bare of   
features, fear spreading over Roger's face as he watches the mighty White Megadeus   
simply cease to exist, but the Big O has no fear. It's eyes begin to glow, but   
Roger Smith invokes courage and stands. "Big O, wait. This one is for me to   
handle."

Roger Smith stares head on at the inevitable Megadeus, voice flaring out to it.   
"Angel! Memories are very precious to people's lives. They give us the   
opportunity to prove to ourselves that we exist! And if we lose them we have an   
unrelenting feeling of uncertainty."

Whether Angel could hear Roger any more, he couldn't tell, but so long as Big   
Venus kept marching on, negotiations would continue. "You **must** listen to   
me. The humans that are living here and now, in the present, are made up of more   
than their memories of the past."

He steps out onto the bow of the Big O with pride. "I myself don't even know who   
I am. I don't have a single, solitary memory about myself ... But I don't believe   
anyone took them from me. I most likely erased them of my own free will!

**I** was the one who made that choice. **I made it for **myself** ... So   
I could live, in the present, **and** in the future, because I **must** go   
on believing there is a **me**!"**

Roger quells the desperation in his emotion as he expresses his plea. "Angel! I   
know that I will never lose the you that is **now** a part of my memories! The   
**you** that met me, and the conviction you had in what you felt you needed to   
do. The you that loved yourself more than anyone else ever could, and I'll never   
forget this woman named Angel, who once loved herself, yet was filled with such   
doubt."

But seemingly unmoved, Big Venus keeps going. Giving everything he has, Roger   
spreads his arms defiantly to stop the Megadeus. "You must stop denying your own   
existence. You have to live as a human being."

Then, with that declaration, the two Megadei step into one another, the machines   
mirroring one another as they step into each other, combining into a flat plane   
of nothingness with a blinding flash of light.

Darkness. That's all there is when Roger Smith comes to. That, and a tightness   
around his body. He can't make up or down of things. Just a moment ago he was   
with Big O and Dorothy, negotiating with Big Ve -- No, with Angel, so how did he   
end up here? He struggles, barely able to move below the neck. _Damn, I must   
be tied up pretty tightly._ "Who are you and why have you done this? What   
have you done to Dorothy?" Roger yells into the lonely, isolated darkness with no   
idea whether there is even anyone else who can hear him.

A raspy voice responds. "So you're finally awoken, Roger Smith?" It's a voice   
that, whether he liked it or not, Roger Smith would never forget. A voice dry   
like husks left in the sun, or the old bandages across his face.

"Schwarzwald!? You're supposed to be dead!" 'So what are you doing here?' That   
is the implication Roger Smith's stern voice frames.

Two orbs of harsh light flash for a moment as the madman's disembodied voice   
scoffs. "Hah! The Truth, and its pursuit, Roger Smith, never dies."

"Spare me the philosophy, Schwarzwald." Whether or not he's in any position to   
ask questions, Roger Smith wants answers.

"Not philosophy; idealism! There is almost no place for me to be, no **role**   
for me to play on **this stage** more important for me than this one, for who   
would be more appropriate to proceed over the **Judgment** of the corrupt   
Paradigm City than the man closest to **The Truth?**"

"Can it, Schwarzwald."

Schwarzwald's eyes flare and his teeth gnash before his voice lashes out at Roger.   
"The Truth will be silenced no longer." Roger's eyes widen. A vision. A memory   
fragment? Whatever it is, he has seen it before, many things like it, and never   
once has he wanted to. Paradigm City crumbles under the red sky, Megadei run   
amok, the wings of Big Venus lay waste to the world. It is a cataclysm of   
unbelievably epic proportions, and afterward, tomatoes. "This is The Truth we   
have denied Roger Smith. The Truth I have discovered. The Truth is that   
everything we believed was a lie."

Schwarzwald's disembodied voice continues to rain from the red sky as the vision   
of the crumbling city fades to black once more, and in the darkness around Roger,   
men grow in vats, cities rebuild, everything fashions itself around him in a   
shallow recreation of the world that was lost. "Long ago there was a terrible   
apocalypse, a self-consequence born from the creations of mankind, and in its   
wake, the age of man was over. However, man clung to its **decadence,** Gordon   
Rosewater sought to preserve the pinnacle symbol of mankind, and he called it ...   
Paradigm City!"

The vision of a nightmare continued; stiffly, with the articulation of wind up   
toys, the people of Paradigm wander the city in circles. "As figmentations  
fashioned in the image of the dead, the people of Paradigm City had no memories of   
the past."

"But they, no, **we** were all a denial of The Truth. We were all a lie. A   
falsehood. Our lives, our city, our identities an illusion produced by chicanery,   
and thus the experiment failed every time." The nightmare repeats again and   
again, each time whirling by quicker and quicker, the fast forwarded images   
piercing Roger's shocked eyes and burning into his mind. "And yet in spite of   
each failure, the experiment was repeated again and again and again,"

Schwarzwald's voice rises in a crescendo of grit, "But what is lost is lost. We   
can rebuild the past no more than we can turn back the clock itself. Why should   
we cling to the flawed world of the past? I would say it's better that we either   
accept The Truth that the world is dead, or that we build a **better** world.   
Such technology is wasted on the pointless recreation of Paradigm City. However,   
that decision does not rest in my hands..."

Light punctuates Schwarzwald's sentence, burning away the darkness. Before   
Roger's wincing eyes he can see the birch of a courtroom, a plaque at the head of   
it declaring 'Court B666', and in it Schwarzwald, gavel in hand, standing upon the   
shoulder of the Red Megadeus, Big Duo. The Big Duo bears a blindfold, and in one   
hand, hefts a scale. In the other, it tightly squeezes Roger Smith, high in the   
air of the colossal court.

 

Roger grits his teeth at his predicament. If Schwarzwald wants him dead, he could   
make quick work of him any time. He stuggles for a moment to raise his watch and   
call for the Big O, but the Big Duo's grasp is unforgiving. The visions over, Roger   
has gathered enough composure again to speak, to quip. "Earlier you asked me 'Who   
would be more appropriate to judge?' Well, how about an **actual** judge?" His   
voice is poisoned with rhetorical sarcasm.

"Law degrees do not bring a man closer to The Truth! Did the wise King Solomon   
need a degree in law? Of course not. He was a man close to The Truth, and so am   
I."

Though his eyes are adjusting, they stay narrowed at the bandaged madman, piercing   
with an unvoiced question of 'Who?'

"Aah, yes, you wouldn't know King Solomon. He is just a **memory** of a   
legend, you might say." Schwarzwald slams his gavel against the side of Big Duo's   
head. The crash of the gavel fades into the ring of stuck metal. "But do not   
persist in making a fool of yourself. Our roles are already decided. They have   
always been decided. You are to defend Paradigm City once more. You will   
negotiate for your defendant!" Schwarzwald brandishes the gavel towards a chair,   
on the seat of which rests a model of the gothic Paradigm City.

"I don't have time to play pretend games with you, Schwarzwald. Where are we?   
What happened to Paradigm?"

A red balloon rises and floats against the courtroom ceiling. "No, what **will   
become of** Paradigm City?" Angel asks as she stands, none of her usual coy,   
composed confidence remaining on her now uncertain face. Against her chest she   
clutches a book: 'METROPOLIS, ANGEL ROSEWATER.'

As Roger hangs, dumbfounded, Schwarzwald declares with a laugh, "The wings of Big   
Venus herald the death and rebirth of the world, Roger Smith. Paradigm City is   
the Defendant, Roger Smith is the Negotiator, I am the Judge, and Angel is the   
Jury who will Author the New World, the latest draft of Metropolis."

Holding herself as she curls, a feather quill trembles in Angel's hands. "I can   
write any world I want into the remaining pages, but ... I don't know what I want   
any more."

If he could have, Roger Smith would reach out as he yells to the woman, "Angel,   
listen to me -- Ugh!" The Big Duo's fingers clench ever so slightly. "Isn't a   
court supposed to have a prosecutor or a larger jury?" He glares at Judge   
Schwarzwald.

"This is my courtroom and you will not tell me how to run it." Schwarzwald   
sneers. "Roger Smith, surely a man with your observational skills is aware that   
Paradigm City is a corrupt place. The suits stand atop their spires looking down   
on a city below them, a city that they've **ruined.** The poor sit beneath   
them, lucky if they can even work like dogs. The homeless suffer in the gutter.   
Is this a world worthy of rebuilding?"

Angel watches Roger Smith with uncertain eyes as he responds, "You're right that   
Paradigm City has flaws." Her eyes lower to a row of large eggs laid out in front   
of her, eleven in total.

"Hah, the Negotiator agrees with me!" Each egg painted red with a little tuft of   
pointy green on the end; easter eggs like tomatoes.

"**However!** Let's say we **could** change the world. What then? What   
world would be right to make? What world would we have the right to force upon   
other people? It's not a decision to be left to only us. Utopia is a dream as   
beautiful as it is unobtainable. You speak of knowing the truth. Then you should   
know, there is no way to make everyone happy because, in the grand scheme of   
things, we all only have a limited vantage point upon the world. A vantage point   
we've reached ourselves, and from that point, we see the world as it truly is,   
because everything in the world we see is a truth about it. We cannot see every   
truth. There are as many truths as there are people. Paradigm City is not always   
bad. The people who live there can make that distinction for themselves. More   
importantly, if we changed it, at what cost would it come? There's a whole world   
out there we would have to uproot in order to re-vision it. Well I can't stand by   
that. Those flaws, those pains, those hopes and dreams that come with them, even   
if down trodden, and the memories we've made in the present. They're worth   
protecting."

The tomatoes eggs begin to rock and stir on their stands.

"The world you would protect is nothing more than an illusion, Roger Smith. It   
was designed by a small elite. You, for instance! You are the Domineus of   
Megadeus because the writers behind this stage deem it so. There is no other   
reason." Contempt hisses through gritted teeth as Schwarzwald speaks. "You are a   
puppet."

Birds inside the eggs struggle as they waver and bounce in place, cracking their   
red shelled worlds.

"I don't fully know what I am. I may be a puppet, or an actor, but I've always   
believed that knowing the past isn't necessary to live in the present, that...   
that to know the past can be detrimental to being in the moment. You've never   
understood that, Scharzwald. You sought the answers unrelentingly, and it   
destroyed you. I never wanted to know those answers. I admit, I was afraid of   
it, but I don't need them, because I know a different truth: none of it changes   
who I am." Limbs begin to burst from the tomato eggs. They sprout legs and stand   
up. "Maybe this is who I was made to be, but that fact doesn't change that I am   
Roger Smith, Paradigm City's Top Negotiator. I can't say that Paradigm City is   
the right world, but despite its flaws, I do not believe that it is the wrong   
one."

Shaking off the last bits of their shells, each egg produces another Angel, the   
line standing up to declare their verdict upon the fate of Paradigm City. They   
open their copies of Metropolis to reveal their stances, half reading 'Ye Not   
Guilty.' A hung jury.

Schwarzwald growls through bared teeth, hands **digging** into the spike of   
bandages atop his head. "What do you new born chicks know about about anything?   
The Truth, the corruption of this illusionary city, will not be ignored. It has   
fallen upon deaf ears all too long!" The Scale of Judgment in Big Duo's hand   
tilts as Schwarzwald leaps onto it. The opposite end lashes violently, and the   
blindfold over Big Duo's eyes burns as lasers sweep over the Jury, each   
dissenting, forgiving Angel recoiling in shock before crumbling into a pile of   
salt, leaving a unanimous decision among the remainders.

Unforgiving judgment is thick in Schhwarzwald's voice as he bangs the gavel into   
the side of the scale, rocking it wildly.

"Cast in the name of God ... "

ACTION! The courtroom trembles, and the Big Duo is toppled in an upheaval as the   
floor under it shatters. Erupting, its defiant fist held high and crushing the   
Red Megadeus, the titanic Big O stands tall, its solid, still, silent lips   
declaring, 'YE NOT GUILTY'

A one hit K.O. The Big Duo falls through the floor, down the empty, bottomless   
pit, now no more than pieces of scrap, and with it Schwarzwald's scream drops into   
the distance.

There is no time to be surprised at the Black Megadeus' self willed return. The   
Big O's cockpit is open, waiting, and a gentleman like Roger Smith could not   
refuse the invitation. From a free fall, he hook shots and swings into the   
cockpit, yelling, "It's showtime!"

As Roger falls into the cockpit, it locks behind him. "Norman, Dorothy! What are   
you doing here?" He asks, voice full of jovial relief at the friendly ... face.   
Dorothy is as stoic as ever.

"Have you forgotten? I was inside the Big O when you were fighting with Big Fau.   
Norman's appearance, however, is inexplicable."

"Naturally, Master Roger, as your Butler, I must offer my aid in this, our Grand  
Finale."

 

The Big O's Heads Up Display flashes to life, the images signaling a return to the   
beginning: the grid, atop which rests the fading remains of The City Without   
Memories, and the marching Big Venus.

 

"Alright, Angel. If you won't listen to me, then negotiations are off. You've   
forced the negotiator's last resort." The Big O swings a mighty arm back, piston   
pumping as the Black Megadeus charges in for a titanic clash. Big Venus advanced   
straight through it, the Big O beginning to fade--

No. The punch connected, pushing Big Venus back, the Black Megadeus' solid arm   
pushed into crunched metal plates. The Big Venus' steel face almost seems shaken   
by Roger Smith's and the Black Megadeus' persistence. The wing clipped Megadeus   
lashes out with an arm, and the Big O meets it fist for fist, but its the Black   
Megadeus that flies back.

"Ugh, I can't afford to go easy on you just because its against my rules to hit a   
woman, can I?" Roger Smith grits his teeth, and the Big O's metal feet rip up   
asphalt as it tries to regain its footing, launching spiked chains around the Big   
Venus' waist to steady itself. Just as the Black Megadeus settles into a stance   
the Big Venus ropes the Big O in by its chains, pulling into into the air with   
tremendous strength before the chain links snap. "You're always making me break   
my rules, Angel!" Riding the surge of force, the Black Megadeus punches again,   
fists blocked by Big Venus' massive arms, metal on each side refusing to yield.

The Big Venus throws its weight into a body slam, bashing the Black Megadeus off   
its feet and ground beneath it crumbles as the Big O crashes into the ground,   
falling into the ruins beneath Paradigm City. The Big Venus steps forward, right   
down the pit, feet crushing into the ruined city streets on either side of the Big   
O. The Big Venus lifts a foot to stomp the Big O, but falls when the Black   
Megadeus pulls one of the Big Venus' legs out from under it. The Big Venus   
topples on top of the Big O, the subterranean city rumbling as the gargantuan   
machines clash.

The Big O braces the Big Venus' fall to keep itself from being crushed under the   
larger Megadeus. Chains fly and the Big O's arms grapple with the Big Venus.   
"Angel! Can you here me?" There is no response. The Big Venus continues to   
wrestle against the Big O. Bracing himself against gravity, Roger opens the Big   
O's hatch. "Norman, hold the fort. I'm going out there."

"Understood, Master Roger." Norman keeps up the struggle as Roger climbs up,   
nearly pressed against the Big Venus' chest. He slammed hands onto the Big Venus'   
hatch until it opened for him.

There she sits, perched inside of the wing clipped Megadeus, back to Roger Smith,   
watching the HUD replaying his words from earlier. "You must stop denying your   
own existence. You have to live as a human being." Tears roll across her cheeks   
as the Megadei struggle on their own. She just wants things to go back to the   
way they were. There is no more room for words. With firm and certain   
reassurance, Roger Smiles for her as he settles a hand Angel's shoudler.

"Roger, the Negotiator."

The fog in Paradigm City is thick today. The light turns green, and the black car   
drives through the city streets. The sidewalks are full of people going on with   
their every day lives. On a corner somewhere, an Angel smiles, standing next to a   
blase android in black. Roger Smith handles the car smoothly. _My name is   
Roger Smith. I perform a much needed job here in the City of Amnesia._

WE HAVE COME TO TERMS.


End file.
